Conservatives hope to reschedule national convention in Calgary

Flooding in Calgary has forced the Conservatives to postpone their national convention. Water levels dropped slightly Sunday, June 23.

Photograph by: DAVE BUSTON/AFP/Getty Images
, Postmedia News

CALGARY — The Conservative Party of Canada is hoping to reschedule its national convention for this fall and remains committed to holding it in Calgary, Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said Sunday.

The party announced on Saturday it is postponing its three-day national convention—which was to be held this week in Calgary— because of the devastating flooding that has struck the city.

On Sunday, Kenney told CBC News he had spoken with Conservative party president John Walsh and the party was hoping to hold the convention “this year, hopefully in the autumn as soon as possible.”

“We’ll find a date,” said Kenney, the MP for Calgary-Southeast, adding that although it “may be a challenge” to find time and space for a fall convention in Calgary, it’s important the party holds the event there “as a sign of confidence in this city.”

“We want to send a message that Calgary’s back, open for business for tourists, for conferences, and one of those major conferences will certainly be the Conservative Party of Canada,” he said.

It was not known how soon a new date will be set.

Thousands of Conservative delegates were scheduled to arrive in Calgary mid-week for the three-day biennial convention that was to feature a keynote speech by Stephen Harper Thursday night. That speech, which the prime minister has been crafting for weeks, was designed to turn the page on months of bad news for the governing Tories, and be part of a political plan to hit the refresh button on his government’s image.

Now, Harper’s chance to use a single speech to reassure the Conservative faithful will have to wait until after an anticipated cabinet shuffle in the coming weeks and a Throne Speech in the fall.

In a separate interview with CTV’s Question Period, Kenney said the time for politics will come after helping with flood recovery efforts.

“We’ll have a chance to rally as a party, but right now we’re all focused — especially those of us here in Alberta — on helping our neighbours get through this really difficult time.”

The postponement announcement was made Saturday by the party sooner than was expected. A day earlier, it had told Conservative delegates that they would be advised on Monday whether the flooding would affect the biennial convention.

But the magnitude of the disaster and the tragic consequences for residents who have been forced from their homes in Calgary and other southern Alberta towns left the Conservatives with a clear choice. The event was to draw more than 2,000 Conservative delegates to a convention centre and many hotels in the downtown core — but that section of the city was hit hard by the flood.

“Our main concern is for the safety and security of everyone affected,” Calgary Centre MP Michelle Rempel said in a news release issued by the party.

Rempel, chair of the convention’s host committee, said that Harper had been in touch with Alberta Premier Alison Redford and Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi “as we pledged the federal government’s full support in recovery and rescue efforts.”

“There are neighbourhoods under water, so there is a lot of work we have to do to rebuild,” she said. “Postponing the convention is the right thing to do for the people of Calgary.”

Party president Walsh said in the statement that “after being in discussions with various authorities regarding the situation, it became clear that holding the national convention at this time would not be in the best interests of the people of Calgary.”

“At this time the focus needs to be on the safety of Calgarians, and a convention our size with the security it entails could mean taking first responders away from the work they are doing,” he said.

Andrew MacDougall, director of communications for Harper, said the prime minister’s office had nothing further to add to the party’s decision to postpone the convention.

As for the political implications of Harper no longer having next week’s venue to deliver a major speech, MacDougall said: “The speech is secondary to the continued rescue and recovery efforts in Calgary.”

On Friday, Harper travelled to Calgary to meet the premier and mayor and to tour, by air, the flooded city and region.

He represents a Calgary riding, and he has roots in the community since moving here from Toronto in the late 1970s as a young man. His family, including his mother and two brothers, live here and he said he was talking to his mother on the phone just two days earlier and there was no clue of the impending disaster.

“As a Calgarian, I don’t know if non-Calgarians would appreciate how much water this really is,” said Harper. “I mean, this is incredible. I’ve seen a little bit of flooding in Calgary before. I don’t think any of us have ever seen anything like this. The magnitude is just extraordinary.”

The convention delegates were scheduled to debate dozens of policy resolutions such as reducing CBC funding, protecting gun owners, opposing euthanasia and sex-selection abortion, and giving citizens the right to use “reasonable force” to protect themselves and their property.

Apart from developing policy that might be folded into the party’s platform for the next election, the delegates were also expected to have a potentially divisive debate about how they should choose future leaders.

In a recap from previous conventions, they were to debate resolutions for a leadership selection formula that would give more influence to Tories from riding associations with large memberships – something strenuously opposed by many Conservatives in Quebec and Atlantic Canada.

But it was the convention’s opening event — Harper’s keynote speech — that people were most eagerly awaiting.

Harper’s government is seen by critics to be drifting aimlessly mid-way through its mandate, with no clear objective and a failure to achieve successes, so far, in free-trade negotiations with Europe. Its ability to secure the export of Alberta oil — through the Northern Gateway pipeline to the B.C. coast and the Keystone XL project through the United States — is also uncertain.

As well, Harper’s reputation for running an overly controlling government was further sealed when one of his own MPs, Brent Rathgeber, quit the Conservative caucus because he said the party had lost its way on some principles and policies, and junior officials in the prime minister’s office were telling elected backbench MPs how to do their jobs.

Moreover, the Tories are enmeshed in a Senate spending scandal that has seen the departure of senators Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin from the Conservative caucus, the resignation of Harper’s former chief of staff Nigel Wright, and the launch of an RCMP criminal investigation into the Senate affair.

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